A FORMER Bowen pool manager was forced to deny he killed Rachel Antonio, or knew who did, during a five-hour grilling at an inquest yesterday into the teen’s disappearance.

Sidney Pate also denied calling the Antonio home, then Robert Hytch’s home, from the pool’s kiosk on Anzac Day 1998, the day Rachel, 16, vanished.

Mr Pate yesterday told the inquest Rachel had come to the pool at lunchtime and stayed for about half an hour.

The inquest heard Mr Pate had closed the pool at 6.30 that night, earlier than usual, as he planned to go to Summer­garden Cinemas to see Good Will Hunting, the same movie Rachel had told her parents she planned to see.

But he said he did not have a conversation with Rachel about the movies that night.

Rachel’s mother Cheryl dropped her daughter at Queens Beach about 6pm on Anzac Day and she was last seen walking toward the stinger nets about 6.45pm.

Mr Pate said after he left the pool, he rode his bike the 5.5km to the cinema for the 7pm film.

He told the court he did not see Rachel and did not know who had made the calls from the public phone at the pool kiosk.

The inquest was previously told by cinema owner Benito De Luca that Mr Pate was not present at the movies.

Earlier, the inquest heard from Michelle Douyere, Mr Pate’s ex-wife, who said he moved to Brisbane after Rachel disappeared, and seemed upset.

The inquest previously heard Rachel faked a pregnancy and planned to confront Mr Hytch on the day she vanished.

Mr Hytch, who was 10 years older than Rachel, was found guilty of her manslaughter in 1999, but that conviction was overturned on appeal and he was acquitted at a retrial in 2001.

Bronwyn Hartigan, for the Antonios, asked Mr Pate if the pool had an industrial bin and if Mr Hytch had keys to the complex. Mr Pate said he could not recall. Ms Hartigan asked Mr Pate if he appreciated that his evidence seemed suspicious.

After Rachel’s disappearance, Mr Pate said Mr Hytch told him he left a party to get a video, his car broke down and he got grease on his clothes and knocked his knee.

Michael Hicks, a mechanic, said Hytch’s car was in good order when he sold it to him in December 1997.

Robert Morton recalled a vehicle coming up behind him on Soldiers Rd, Queens Beach, about 7pm on April 25, before veering into scrub at speed.

THEIR days on the court may be over but former Townsville Fire players Aneka Davis, Cherie Gallagher and Julia Duroux will be cheering from the sideline when the team takes on Bendigo in the grand final.